How to Grow a Heart
by Mae Snapdragon
Summary: What happened before KH 2? Before 358/2 Days? Before Chain of Memories? What happened when Axel was just a newbie at the Organization? What was he like? Was there something that happened to turn him into a willing assassin? Someone?
1. Chapter 1

Twilight Town was usually a peaceful place, usually being the keyword in this sentence. Usually one could stroll it's streets in the orange glow of the sun without having to worry about being attacked, seeing monsters erupt from mid-air, and observing strange men in black cloaks running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Unfortunately, today was not a usual day.

Drana peered around the corner, frozen by the strange sight in front of her. She had been walking aimlessly when she had heard the muffled sounds of a fight from up ahead and she had ran to see what was going on, only to see something incredibly bizarre.

A tall figure in a black cloak, holding spiked disks in his hands, was attempting to fight off what looked like three large black sock puppets. they had crooked black antennae and they wobbled about on crooked little legs. The sight would have been comical if they hadn't seemed so sinister. The cloaked figure ducked their blows, moving with a grace that pulled Drana's eyes. They spun and sliced through one of the sock creatures with their disk weapons, causing the black monster to vaporize. But then another one of the black things surged forward, body checking the person backwards. They flew through the air and hit the wall with a dull thud, sinking to the ground like a rag doll. The impact had knocked off the hood of the cloak, revealing that it was a man with ridiculously spiky red hair. He raised his head, eyes flashing, and hurled one of the spiked disks at the monsters bearing down on him, 'causing it to disintegrate into nothingness. But the third lunged for him, knocking his other weapon out of his hand. The red-haired man glared up at the monster and raised his fist as though he was going to punch it, but the monster slammed him to the ground and raised it's arm to strike him.

Drana didn't think, just pushed away from the wall and ran towards them, grabbing the disk he had thrown up off the ground and clutching it in her hand. She took two steps, like she was going in for a layup in basketball, and then sprang into the air.

"Die, sock puppet!" she said, and swung the spiked disk down onto it's head. Instantly the monster disappeared and she fell on top of the man in the cloak, the two of them tumbling together back onto the ground.

For a moment they lay in a tangle of arms and legs, both struggling for breath. Drana's cheek was pressed against his chest, one of her legs inbetween his, her head rising and falling with the rhythm of his breathing. He groaned, shifting slightly, the sound vibrating through both their bodies, and Drana looked up to see a pair of turquoise green eyes staring down at her.

Okay, Drana, she thought, slightly hysterically. It's time to get off of the strange man.

She scrambled backwards, using his stomach as a brace to push herself to her feet. Whoever he was, he had muscles like steel.

"Um, sorry, I mean, not sorry, I'm glad I helped you, sorry I fell on you," she babbled nervously. "I wasn't trying to feel you up, it was an accident, you know what, never mind, uh, yeah, who're you, and what were those things that attacked you?"

He sat up slowly, still staring at her as though trying to decide what to think. He rubbed a hand through his spiked hair.

"Thank you for helping me," he said, climbing to his feet. Shooting her a quick, broad grin, he turned around, and starting walking nonchalantly towards where his other weapon still lay on the ground.

'Hey!" Drana exclaimed, running to catch up with him. "You didn't answer my-" She broke off her sentence as she noticed a huge rip in his cloak that went all the way down the side of his torso, providing a very convenient view of the body underneath the cloak. She quickly peeled her eyes away and said, "Um, your cloak is ripped."

He stopped walking and glanced down at his side.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, grabbing at the cloak. He tried to force the two sides back together, but only caused it to rip more.

His eyes widened and he clutched his head, fingers sinking into his red hair.

"Shit! Shit!" he repeated, panic edging his words. "What the hell do I do now? I'm stuck here! Shit!"

"It's just a rip," Drana said, nonplussed. "You know, I could-"

"Look," he said, rounding on her. " It is not just a rip. If I don't fix this, I can't go back through the corridor of darkness to the castle because I'll freakin' disappear!" The fury faded from his eyes, leaving them abruptly blank, and he leaned back, smirking down at her. "I really don't need a child around right now. Thank you, goodbye, sayonara."

Drana's mouth dropped open, anger sweeping through her. She lifted the spiked disk that was still in her hand and hurled it at him, the flat side whacking him in the face.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, stumbling backwards.

"I'm not a child!" she yelled.

"Then why are you yelling?" he shouted.

"You're yelling too!" she cried.

"So? I'm 19, and that makes me an adult, so I'm allowed to yell!" he snarled, an arrogant smile tipping the corner of his mouth up.

"HA!" Drana said triumphantly. "I'm 17! I'm only two years younger than you. So you can't call me a child at all."

He narrowed his eyes and walked closer to her, towering over her.

"You don't look seventeen," he said suspiciously. "You're like a twig."

"I'm sorry I don't fit your perfect version of a seventeen year old girl," she said, refusing to back away and let him intimidate her. "But unless my birth certificate is lying, I am two years younger than you, therefore, not a child. And I was going to offer to fix your cloak, but now I'm not sure I want to."

"You can fix this?" the red-haired man said. "Look, I'm sorry that I called you a child. I really need this to be fixed or I'm screwed. Can you please fix it?"

Drana looked up into his eyes, expecting to see a tiny bit of remorse in them, or pleading. But his turquoise-green eyes were blank, as though there were no emotions at all behind them.

Without a warning, the world in front of her disappeared and colours zoomed over her eyes. They swirled faster and then suddenly parted, revealing a black and white image of two men in black cloaks. One of them was kneeling on the ground, and had long, light hair, probably blond, and a sallow face. The other one was standing behind him and had extremely spiky hair, and two markings underneath his eyes. It was Mr-I'm-19-but-you're-a-child! Except that he looked older. Harder. And as she watched, helpless, he surged forward and stabbed the blond man in the back with a spiked disk. He had just killed him!

The vision disappeared even faster than it had appeared and suddenly the world was in colour again and the red-haired man was staring down at her curiously. She quickly turned away, not wanting him to see her face.

"Are you okay?" he asked. He faked concern well, but Drana could tell by his voice that it wasn't real. It was as it he knew what emotions sounded like and looked like, but he couldn't feel them himself.

But then she remembered. His anger had been real! So had his panic before. When he had yelled at her, his eyes hadn't been blank. He could feel, she just knew it.

Ever since she was little she had been able to see the future. The visions came to her even if she didn't want them too, and no matter what she did she couldn't change what was going to happen. But this time she was going to do it. There was still hope, right? He wasn't a murderer yet. That future didn't have to come true. She could still change him.

Drana turned around, unsure as to whether it was a good thing or not that she had decided to take an early walk this morning.

"Yeah, I'll fix your cloak," she said to him. "On the condition that you answer every single question I ask you."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Agreed."

"I'm Drana," she said, sticking her hand out. "What's your name?"

He took her hand in his own, his long fingers brushing her wrist.

"Axel."


	2. Chapter 2

Drana had never before appreciated how hard it was to sneak into her house.

"I think the window's stuck!" she grunted, digging her fingernails under the bottom, trying to heave it up.

"I think you just kicked me in the eye!" a low voice replied.

Drana glanced down at Axel and shifted her feet on his shoulders, feeling his hands tighten on her shoes.

"Just stay still," she hissed. "Any try to keep quiet. The whole point of me sneaking in through my bedroom window is so my parents don't corner me the instant I walk through the front door and start asking why I went for a walk so early in the morning."

"Why did you go for a walk so early in the morning?" Axel asked.

"I just felt like it," Drana replied. "Hey, can I borrow one of your spiked disks?"

There was a flash of red light and then Axel handed the weapon up to her.

"They're called chakrams," he said.

She took it from him, unperturbed by the fact that it had appeared out of thin air. Only twenty minutes ago she had saved him from black monsters that looked like sock puppets. Not to mention, she had the power to see the future, so the chakrams were definitely not the weirdest thing she'd ever seen.

She wedged one of the spikes into the base of the window and used it to pry the window open a few inches. then she dropped the chakram down to the ground, careful not to hit Axel, and pushed the window up the rest of the way.

"Give me a boost," she called down to the man she was standing on. "I'm going to try to climb in."

He nodded and wrapped his hands around her legs just below her knees, pushing her up until she could scramble in through the open window and tumble gracelessly to her bedroom floor. Not wasting anytime in case her parents had heard her less than elegant entrance, she grabbed her bucket of sewing supplies from whee it was sitting on her dresser and tossed it out the window to Axel, who caught it automatically.

Drana swung her legs out the window and squeezed through, sitting on the ledge. She gazed down at the ground, which suddenly seemed a lot farther than it had before. Why on earth did her window have to be so high up?

"Um...Axel?" she said slowly, drawing his eyes back up to her. "I think I'm going to need your help getting down from here."

He sighed and rolled his eyes, dropping the box to the ground and stretching his arms up.

"Just try and step back onto my shoulders," he instructed. "I'll steady you with my arms and we'll go from there."

Drana nodded uncertainly, then moved slowly off the windowsill, stretching out one leg until her foot touched his shoulders. Gingerly, she rested her weight on it and eased her other foot down, Axel's warm hands holding her leg in place so she didn't wobble or topple over. Once she was standing on his shoulders again, she slowly let go of the windowsill, one hand automatically grabbing the top of his head for balance.

"What now?" she asked, an edge of hysteria in her voice. Wizard God, this man was ridiculously tall! It was like standing on top of the CN Tower!

"I don't know! Do I need to baby you ever step of the way?" Drana could hear the taunting grin in his voice. "Just climb down somehow."

She briefly contemplated hitting him in the head, but then decided against it, not wanting him to decide that her help wasn't worth all the trouble he was going to. Slowly she bent down on his shoulders, slipping her arms around his neck until she was hanging off him like a monkey. then, clinging to him, she shifted her legs off his shoulders and slid down his body until her feet touched the ground.

As soon as she was standing upright again, Axel shoved away from her, putting a good two metres between them.

"Next time, don't slither down me like that," he said, irritation flashing in his eyes. Despite his words, triumph filled Drana's head. This was the third time he had displayed emotion, no matter how small it might be. Perhaps he wasn't a lost cause!

"Next time, instead of thinking it's funny to make me do all the work, you can just lift me off your shoulders and put me back on the ground," Drana retorted, snatching her sewing bucket up. "Now, follow me and I'll fix your cloak."

She led him around the corner of the house to the back, where she sat down on the damp ground underneath a squat little tree. Axel sat down beside her, ducking his head to fit underneath the branches.

"Okay, this way no one will be able to see us," Drana said, opening up the bucket and pulling out a needle and some black thread. "Just move your shoulder forward so I can get at the rip. Yeah, that's good."

She stuck the needle into the thick fabric and pulled it through, glad that she had chosen the stronger thread. Under the small confines of the tree, she could feel Axel close to her, his hair brushing her cheek as she sewed in silence. She knew that as soon as she was done, the red-haired man would take off, so she slowed down. She had to find out more about him so she could stop her vision of the future from coming true!

"You promised to answer all my questions," she reminded him, breaking the silence. "So here's the first one: How does your hair stay up in spikes like that without gel or something?"

He laughed, and she felt his warm breath tickle her ear.

"That's your question?" he said, his tone mocking. "it's natural. It just naturally goes into spikes." Drana had guessed that that was the case; earlier when she had put her hand on his head, his hair had felt soft, like normal hair, not hard and pointy, as though it had been gelled into place.

"Second question," she said, making another careful stitch. "What were those black monsters that attacked you?"

"They're called Heartless," he answered. "When a person loses their heart to darkness, they become a Heartless. Heartless go around attacking people and stuff like that." He shrugged, and Drana became momentarily distracted by the sight of his muscles moving through the rip in his cloak.

"Third question," she stated, hastily returning her eyes to her sewing, which was almost halfway done. "What are you?"

He grew tense under her fingers.

"I know you're not human," she continued. "Human don't have gravity defying hair."

"Hey!" he shot back indignantly. "I had gravity defying hair even when I was human!"

"Ha!" Drana exclaimed, glancing up at him. "You just admitted that you're not human. So what are you?"

He stared at her for a moment and she became aware of how close they were under the tree. As if he had just realized the same thing, he looked away abruptly, but not before Drana saw a flicker of something in his empty eyes.

"I'm a Nobody," he said.

"A what?"

"A Nobody. Capital "N". Sometimes when a person turns into a Heartless, if they had a strong enough heart they leave behind a shell: A Nobody."

"But if you are the shell of a person who lost their heart, then doesn't that mean you...you..." Drana sputtered, fumbling the thread.

"Yeah, it means what you think it means," Axel said nonchalantly. "I don't have a heart. I can't feel any emotions."

The needle slipped through Drana's fingers as she stared up at the red-haired man. How was she going to save him from his future and teach him how to feel if he didn't have a heart?


	3. Chapter 3

"Take it back, Axel!" Drana roared, glaring across the sun-dappled square at the red-haired man.

"Never!" he shouted back, anger simmering in his turquoise green eyes.

"Take back what you said, or I'll..." she yelled, taking a step towards him.

"You'll what?" he shot, moving towards her as well.

"Or our friendship is over!" Drana seethed. "Redheads do not have more fun than brunettes!"

"Yes, they do!"

"No, they don't!"

"Prove it!"

They glared at each other for a moment, bodies tense, but then suddenly a grin split across Drana's face and she poked Axel in the chest with a finger.

"I win!" she said gleefully. "That's the tenth time you've showed emotion today!"

Axel groaned and turned away, rubbing his hand through his spiked red hair.

"Why are you insistent on proving that I can feel emotions?" he asked, flashing his usual mocking smile. "It's your imagination. I don't have a heart, remember?"

"Whatever you say, Axel," Drana gloated. "That was the tenth time!"

"What, are you memorizing the numbers or something?" He raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards.

"Yes, actually," Drana shot back. "I like to memorize things. Then I can remember them easily."

"My name's Axel, and I don't have a heart," he said. "Got it memorized?"

Drana smirked at him. "Sure, sure. But you bet me that I couldn't get you to show emotion ten times, and since I won-"

"You just goaded me into being angry," he muttered. "Anger is not an emotion."

"Yes, it is," Drana sang out. "And since I won, that means that you don't get to leave for another hour!"

Axel sighed.

"Saix is going to murder me."

Drana swivelled around and ran across the square, calling backward over her shoulder, "Come on, Axel, I want to show you something!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" he answered, sounding very unenthusiastic.

"Yeah, well hurry up, or I'll make it two hours!" Drana said.

She heard him mutter something and then he was past her, his shoes barely touching the stones, shooting her an evil grin as he passed.

"Who is being slow now, huh?" he said arrogantly.

Drana laughed and chased after him.

It had been four days since she had first met Axel, saved him from a Heartless, seen a vision of the future where he killed someone, decided to save him from that future, and then sewed up his cloak in exchange for answers to all of her questions. Before he left on the first day, she told him he had to come back the next day because she still had more questions for him. She had learned about the Organization, about it's members and about Nobodies, about other worlds and Heartless and missions. He had been on a recon mission when she first met him. Everyday he would come to see her after he was finished his mission. He'd started to smile when he saw her, and when she referred to him as a friend, he hadn't denied it. It was definitely progress. Slow progress, but progress all the same.

Drana pounded up the path, feeling the heat of the sun across her shoulders. Ahead of her she spotted Axel, leaning against a house and trying not to look as though he was waiting for her.

"Oh, there you are," he smirked as she skid to a stop beside him. "You took so long, I thought someone must have kidnapped you."

"Aw, you were worried about me? How sweet," Drana teased.

To her surprise, he blushed, his red face clashing horribly with his hair.

"Worried?" he said tersely, studiously avoiding her gaze. "Don't be stupid. I don't feel things."

"Yeah, yeah, I remember," Drana muttered, still in semi-shock. Although she had been trying for four days to get him to show emotion, she hadn't expected him to be able to display anything but anger. But now-

"So, what did you want to show me?" Axel asked, folding his hands behind his head casually.

Drana quickly shook the thoughts out of her head and pulled the plastic bag she was carrying out from behind her back.

"While you were trying to prove how fast you are, I stopped at the shop and got us these," she exclaimed, reaching inside and taking out two bright blue ice-creams. She held one out to Axel, who stared at it obvious trepidation. Slowly, he stretched out his arm and took it from her, his fingertips lingering on her hand. She hastily drew her arm away, still feeling the heat from his fingers on her skin, and grabbed her own ice cream.

"Go on, try it!" she urged. Axel narrowed his eyes, then bit a corner of the ice cream off. A strange expression came over his face, and he swallowed with difficulty.

"What is this stuff?" he asked, holding it at arm's length.

"It's called sea-salt ice-cream," Drana laughed. "It takes a while to get used to the taste, I know, but it's really good!" She licked her own ice-cream, savouring the strange salty-sweet taste, until she looked up and saw Axel's eyes trained on her mouth.

Heat seemed to rush through her body and she quickly stepped away, feeling awkward.

"What are you looking at?" she said nervously.

Instead of answering, he moved forward and bent his head towards hers. She froze, her mind shutting down in shock. Axel moved closer, and then, when his face was mere inches from hers, he reached his hand up and gently wiped a smear of ice cream off of the corner of her mouth. Then, as though nothing had happened, he moved away, taking another bite out of his ice-cream.

"You had ice-cream on your face," he said.

Drana's heart was pounding against her ribs, working overtime as she suddenly struggled to catch her breath. This was not good, she thought in dismay, staring at him, at his completely unaffected face. It would be stupid, worse than stupid, to feel anything for someone who had no heart. She was just going to be his friend. She was just trying to save him.

"So, how many people are in this Organization?" she inquired, changing the subject.

"There's ten-oh, wait, eleven people," Axel replied, scratching his head. "We got a new guy a week ago. Pink-haired weirdo."

"Are any of them your friends?" Drana asked.

His face grew blank again, but she thought she caught a hint of wistfulness in his eyes.

"Friends? No. When we were human, I used to be friends with Saix, but now that we're Nobodies..." he trailed off, looking a little lost. "Things are different."

"Am I your friend?" she said quietly.

Axel turned to face her, chewing thoughtfully on his ice-cream. "If you weren't my friend, I wouldn't be wasting all this time coming out here to talk to you," he said simply.

An inordinate amount of warmth filled her at his words, and she ducked her head, letting her hair fall in front of her face to shield her smile from him.

"Isn't friendship an emotion?" she said.

"What? No!" Axel replied, dancing away from the wall and waving his ice-cream stick at her. "It is not! I don't need a heart to be friends with someone!"

Drana smirked at him. "Sounds like an excuse to me. You can feel emotions, I know it!"

He glared at her. "I can not." He turned on his heel and raised a hand. The air in front of him shimmered, then seemed to rip open and expand, revealing a black tunnel, twisted, dark colours swirling inside it.

"I'm going back," he said, jutting his chin out stubbornly. "I'll see you tomorrow, Drana."

Drana watched, a slight smile still upon her face as he ran forward into the portal and it closed around him, swallowing him up before disappearing. She tipped her head back and stared up at the sky, the orange streaks of twilight painted like tiger stripes on the clouds.

"Drana, is it?"

She whirled around to see someone standing on the path behind her, a tall, hulking figure wearing the same black cloak as Axel, the hood pulled down to hide his face. As she stared, bent over slightly in a instinctively defensive position, the figure raised their head and shook the hood off. It fell gracefully onto his shoulders, revealing a man's face, framed by shoulder-length pink hair.

He smiled, and she shivered involuntarily. She had thought Axel's eyes were blank, but this man's...they were worse than blank, they were dead.

"So, this is the girl who Axel has been sneaking off to see," he said silkily. "You're going to be very useful to me."


	4. Chapter 4

Silence stole through The Castle That Never Was, winding between strange pillars and down hallways as twisted as it's inhabitants. Occasionally at the end of a corridor you could catch a glimpse of a black cloak whipping around a corner: the members of the Organization tended to flit in and out of the place like moths going from one light source to the next.

The bedrooms of the Nobodies were in the higher regions of the Castle. Every door was shut, and there was almost no one around to hear when a dark portal expanded suddenly in the middle of the hallway, breaking the silence, and a tall, red-haired man stepped out, dismissing the portal with a flick of his wrist.

"Axel."

The red-headed man turned to face the only other person in the hallway. Saix stepped out from the shadows, crossing his arms over his chest, his eyes as cold as his long blue hair.

"You've been spending a lot of time in Twilight Town," he said coolly.

"I like it there," Axel replied, cocking his head to the side. "Charming little place. Great night life."

"You've been spending too much time with that girl," Saix retorted.

Axel grew still, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "I don't see how anything I do is any of your business."

"We had a deal-" Saix hissed, stepping forward.

"That I would help you rise to the top?" Axel finished. "Well, things have changed lately. I've noticed that I don't really get anything out of that deal, so I'm not too interested anymore."

"That girl is the 'cause of this, isn't she?" Saix exclaimed. "She's changing you! She's not good for you! Must you be so obtuse?"

"Must you be such a drama queen?" Axel mocked. He turned away from his former friend and began to saunter towards his bedroom.

"Perhaps Marluxia will have more luck persuading the girl to stay away from you," Saix said quietly.

Axel froze, and then whirled around.

"You told the new guy to hunt down Drana?"

"I only told him to talk to her," Saix murmured. "But I wouldn't put it past him to ignore my instructions and instead use her for his own purposes. It really is too bad that you dragged her into this."

Axel stared at him, feeling like molasses was trickling into his veins. A thick, heavy sensation stole over him, and it took him a moment to recognize what this thing was: fear.

Saix watched, his expressionless face morphing subtly into a tiny smile, as Axel conjured a dark corridor and dove headlong into it, vanishing in a swirl of blackness.

"Hope you learn your lesson, Axel," he whispered.

Drana stared at the pink-haired man advancing on her, and she slowly backed up, trying to keep as much space between them as possible.

"I don't understand," she said carefully. "How could I be of use to you? I'm nobody, really, nobody at all."

The man smiled again. "Oh, you're not a Nobody, though you know all about them from Axel, am I right?"

"No," Drana said, swallowing hard. "You're absolutely wrong."

He chuckled, and then suddenly sprang forward, appearing in front of her before she could do so much as blink.

"I think I'm right," He whispered, grabbing her by the wrist. "And I think you're coming with me."

There was a distant whistling noise, and suddenly a flaming red disk shot between them, forcing the pink-haired man to let go of Drana and stumble backwards. The chakram hit the wall and embedded itself deep into the brick. Pink Hair didn't even have time to move before Axel surged forward and pinned him to the wall next to the chakram, flame wreathing the ground around his feet and dancing up his legs like he was some demon from hell.

Axel stared into Marluxia's eyes, feeling a rage he had never felt before, not even in his human life.

"If you touch her again," he said quietly, tightening his hold on Marluxia's neck. "I will kill you. You got that, Freshmeat?"

Marluxia gulped, unable to meet Axel's eyes for fear that they would incinerate him. "I...I understand, Number 8."

Axel glared at him for a second longer, and then released him, the flames dying down.

Drana stared as the pink-haired man slumped to the ground, massaging his neck and gasping for breath. Axel wrenched his chakram out of the wall, his every movement tense and irritated, and then turned to face her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his eyes filled with a mixture of anger, and something else she didn't recognize.

"Hey!" the pink-haired man croaked out from his place on the ground. "Are you just going to leave me here?"

"Shut up, Pepto-Bismol," Axel snapped.

"I'm fine," Drana replied. "Thank you. How did you know-"

Axel laughed shortly. "Don't flatter yourself! I was just coming back here to ask you where to meet you tomorrow. Then I saw the new guy here picking on you. I didn't really want him to kill off my friends, so I thought I'd step in."

But Drana was almost certain that it had been more than that. Somehow, Axel had known that she was in danger and had come to help her. He had cared enough to come and help her.

The ground tilted and the sky began to swirl, and for a second Drana thought she was fainting, but then everything vanished and another image flew in front of her eyes, this one in black and white. A boy, a duck, and a weird dog thing were standing in a huge, white room of what looked like a castle, all of them wearing slightly awed, slightly confused expressions. Suddenly Drana saw him standing in front of them, smirking as usual. It was Axel, but not her Axel. His eyes were cold and he looked as if he really couldn't feel anything. The vision flickered, and Axel abruptly dashed forward, chakrams out, and attacked the boy. Almost as soon as their weapons met, the vision faded.

Drana's head swam and she realized that this time she really was falling, watching the world go sideways in slow motion. Axel leaped forward and his arms curled around her, catching her before she hit the ground.

"I thought you said you were okay!" he snarled angrily.

"I thought you said you couldn't feel emotion," Drana said, smiling slightly. Inside, her mind was racing. Why was Axel in the future colder than he was now? She had thought that she was helping him! He was starting to feel things now, but the him in the future was worse than ever!

"I hate to break up this cozy little discussion," the pink-haired man said, climbing slowly to his feet. "But I'll just be going now..."

"Whatever, Avon Lady," Axel threw at him.

"Stop it with the jokes about my hair!" the man exploded.

"Well, if it wasn't pink, I wouldn't make fun of it, now would I?" Axel retorted.

The other man spun angrily on his heel and summoned a dark portal, stomping quite childishly into it and vanishing.

Drana used Axel's distraction to slowly ease out of his arms, finding herself unconsciously missing the feeling of being held by him. She stood up, trying to shake off the warmth of his body next to hers.

"I was just dizzy," she said, smiling flippantly. "I'll see you in the square tomorrow, right?"

Axel got to his feet as well, still staring at where Pink Hair had disappeared to. "Right."

"Well, see you!"

Drana turned and ran away down the path, letting her feet run faster and faster across the stones until the houses around her blurred into long coloured lines alongside her. What was she doing wrong? Why hadn't the future changed for Axel?

What was she doing wrong?


	5. Chapter 5

After the incident with Marluxia, Axel didn't come to see Drana for three days. She waited in the square everyday until the sun went down, but he never appeared.

Drana scuffed her shoe against the ground, staring at the different flecks of grey and brown marinating in the cobblestones like pieces of herbs in salad dressing. Her gaze lifted slightly to stare listlessly around the empty square, noting the way the sunlight filled the wide space. She had first met Axel in this very square. She had saved him from a Heartless monster that looked like a sock puppet and then she had tumbled onto him, and since then she had been tangled up in him. Why had she decided to save him from his own future? Any sane person who knew it was in someone's future to become a murderer would stay far away from them. But no, she had to be the hero. She had to befriend the potential murderer, and get so close to him that now he was gone she could think about nothing except him.

If only she knew why he wasn't coming to see her anymore! Maybe if she understood it, she could let it go. The last time she had seen him, he had saved her and then promised to see her the next day. So why hadn't he come?

Drana squeezed her eyes shut, gripping the edge of the bench she was sitting on. She had the power to see the future, so why not the present? Why couldn't she just see what he was doing right now? She focused as hard as she could. Axel. She wanted to see Axel, right now. She focused until her ears were ringing, but nothing happened.

She opened her eyes and dropped her head into her hands, feeling dangerously close to screaming, crying, or punching something. Unfortunately, the only things that she could punch nearby were the ground, the wall, or the bench, all which would hurt her hand.

Stupid Axel! He could have sent a letter or something. Not knowing why was driving her insane!

"I want to see him!" she muttered through clenched teeth. "I just want to see him!" Anger surged through her, clouding her eyes over with red. Images began to move in front of her eyes, strange, tangled pictures of people she didn't know, from every part of Twilight Town. They streamed along in front of her eyes as though she was travelling at fast speed down a corridor with videos playing on every wall. Faster and faster they swirled, until suddenly they parted and one scene rose up in front of her eyes, not in black and white like her visions of the future, but in red.

It was Axel. He was in a forest somewhere, and he was fighting a group of Heartless, more sock puppets plus some strange flying chess pieces with witch hats on. His face was blanker than ever as he slashed this way and that with his chakrams, the black creatures dissolving all around him.

The vision had barely appeared before it disappeared, and Drana found herself on her feet, reaching out as though to hold the vision in her hand and stop it from leaving her. She had actually done it. She had seen a vision of the present!

And now she knew where Axel was.

Axel moved on automatic, dodging a strike of lightning and blasting the Heartless out of the way with a plume of fire. Killing Heartless was boring, he thought. They just got in his way. Of course, mostly everything seemed boring now.

It was strange. He hadn't noticed how hollow his chest felt before he met Drana, but now that he had stopped hanging out with her it felt like there was a hole there. It was weird. He had sort of felt like there was a heart there when he was with her, but now, he was just empty.

"You cannot see the girl again," Xemnas had said. "She is corrupting you. We need you to be strong, as you are. You are a Nobody. You cannot forget that."

I am a Nobody, Axel thought bitterly. And Nobodies don't feel anything. Nobodies don't have hearts. Nobodies are not allowed to feel anything.

He ducked and slashed his chakram upwards into the underbelly of the last Heartless, watching with a strange, grim satisfaction as it disintegrated. Drana had called the Shadow Heartless sock puppets, he remembered.

"Why did you call that Heartless a sock puppet?" he had asked her on their second day.

She had glanced up at him in surprise, her eyes wide as though she couldn't imagine why anyone would not call a Heartless a sock puppet.

"Because they look like sock puppets!" she had exclaimed, proceeding to give him a five minute dissertation on sock them, complete with hand motions. Axel smiled at the memory. Sometimes Drana seemed so much like a child. More memories flashed into his head: her sprawled on top of him, or sliding all the way down his body to climb down off his shoulders. His breath grew short at the thought. Sometimes she seemed very far from a child.

Axel gazed around the forest, trying to turn his thoughts away from her. He'd only know her for what, four days? It was impossible to miss someone you'd only known for four days, right? He swiped a hand over his face, sweating from his fight, and the infernally hot cloak he was wearing. Man. Right now, he could really use an-

"Ice cream?"

Axel whirled around to see an arm protruding from behind a tree trunk near him, holding out a blue sea salt ice cream. Fro a second he froze, but then he slowly reached out and took it, turning to lean his back against the tree trunk.

"Thank you," he said quietly.

Drana pressed her back against the bark, feeling Axel's presence on the other side as though it was burning through the wood.

"You know," she said softly, biting into her own ice cream. "Where I come from, people don't just abandon their friends without telling them why."

"Where I come from, people like me aren't really supposed to have friends or feel anything," he answered, his voice barely audible.

"I thought you said you couldn't feel emotions?" Drana whispered, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"I can't," he said quietly. "But things are a little different when I'm with you."

Drana's eyes widened and her grip on the ice cream stick tightened until it was cutting into her skin. She didn't know what to say to that.

"Is that cloak hot?" she asked instead.

He chuckled. "Yeah. Really hot, especially in summertime."

"Then why don't you just take it off?" she suggested.

His face suddenly appeared beside her, around the side of the tree trunk, his expression mischievous. "Under this cloak, I'm completely naked."

Drana laughed and pushed away from the tree trunk, punching Axel in the arm. "Are not!" she said, feeling happier than she had in a while. "You may not wear a shirt, but you do wear pants. I can see the bottom of them under the cloak."

"If I was naked under this, would you still suggest I take my cloak off?" he teased, dropping his ice cream stick on the ground.

"Maybe," Drana said slyly, grinning evilly.

Axel laughed, and she stared up at him in surprise. The smile on his face was real! She had never heard him laugh like that before! Maybe I really have saved him, she thought dazedly. Maybe he will never become a murderer.

"So, you say you can feel things now?" she asked, licking the drips of ice cream off her hand and tossing away the stick. "What kind of things? Like, can you feel sadness?"

"Yeah," he said, watching her carefully.

"Can you feel happiness?"

"Yeah."

She shot a glance up at him, her lips curved in a teasing smile. "Can you feel...lust?"

Axel stared down at her, watching the light move over her face. He stepped closer to her, leaning down towards her.

"You may not want to know the answer to that," he whispered.

Adrenaline shot through Drana's veins. "I was only jok-"

His mouth came down on hers, not hard, like she'd expected, but softly, gently. He kissed her like he was waiting for permission, like she was something he treasured and didn't want to break. He pulled back slowly, his eyes opening to move over her face. Then he kissed her again, and this time Drana slid her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

It was as though she had flicked a switch. He picked her up and pushed her against the tree trunk, his mouth moving over hers with a hunger she couldn't believe, their bodies pressed flush together. Every nerve ending on her body was burning. All she could feel was him, and she didn't want to feel anything else ever again. They kissed, open-mouthed, hot, until they had to pull back, panting for breath.

"The answer..." Axel said, his voice rough. "To your question...is yes."


	6. Chapter 6

The Grey Area in The Castle That Never Was was packed when Axel came back. This was not a usual occurrence; there was often two or three people hanging our in there, but for all of them to be in there at once, lounging about in armchairs and sofas, had to be a stroke of luck. Bad, horrible luck.

Despite the fact that the entire Organization was in the room, except for Xemnas, what conversation there was was not very loud. Demyx was chattering away to Xigbar about nothing in particular, Luxord was challenging Xaldin and Vexen to a poker game, and Marluxia was asking Zexion where he could buy hair dye. They were all doing something, and yet when Axel walked into the room, every head turned to him and all noise ceased abruptly as a ripple of shock passed through them.

Axel was smiling.

Although they hadn't known him for very long, everyone knew that if Axel was smiling, it generally meant something bad, like he had just lit everyone's rooms on fire for fun. But something was different about this smile. It wasn't devious. It wasn't mocking. It was just...happy.

Axel wasn't aware of all the eyes upon him, or even of the fact that he was smiling. His mind was far away, hitting replay over and over again on that moment with Drana in the forest. He could still feel that rush of adrenaline when she had wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back. He could still see how she had looked when they had broke apart: her hair in disarray, her swollen lips parted slightly, her dark eyes half-lidded as though she had been drugged. Axel's body was still humming like an electrical current was running through it. Even back when he was human, he had never felt like this. Hey, maybe losing your heart to darkness and becoming a Nobody wasn't so bad after all!

"So, how was it?"

The chill in Saix's voice was enough to cut through Axel's thoughts, and he looked over to see the blue-haired man standing by the window. The other members somehow became even quieter, waiting to see what would happen.

"How was what?" Axel asked, his smile shifting back to his usual taunting one.

"Seeing the girl that you were specifically ordered by Lord Xemnas not to see," Saix said offhandedly. "You seem pretty pleased with yourself. And just think: that was only a kiss. Imagine what more would be like."

"How do you know what I did?" Axel demanded, trying hard not to imagine what more would be like.

"Do you think I wouldn't have you watched?" Saix scoffed. "I knew you wouldn't be able to do what you're told."

"New flash: I never do what I'm told," Axel shot. "Got it memorized?"

"Got it memorized?" Saix repeated. "When you became a Nobody, you stopped saying that. You said it reminded you too much of when you were a Somebody."

"Well, maybe I feel a little bit more like a Somebody now," Axel said. "She makes me feel like a Somebody. So I'm going to keep my little catchphrase, thank you very much."

"Oh, she does, does she?" Saix hissed. "Well, I've been finding out things about her as well. I've been...persuading people to tell me things. And you may not like her all that much once you hear them."

Axel stared at him, a strange sort of dread rising up in his chest.

"What sort of things?"

Drana woke up with a gasp, tears streaming down her face. For a moment she didn't know where she was, and panic gripped her. Then slowly, her vision sharpened and she realized she was in the square, lying on the bench. All around her was a faint darkness: the sun must have just gone down because the sky was turning a misty black-purple, streaks of light still showing over the houses where the horizon was. She must have fallen asleep while waiting for Axel. And obviously, he had never come.

Slowly, she stood up, stretching her cramped muscles and wandering to the centre of the square, gazing dazedly at the sky. After Axel had left yesterday to go back to the Castle, she had been deliriously happy. She hadn't been able to stop smiling. Her mind had kept straying back to it all through the evening. She had felt like anyone who looked at her would be able to see Axel's mark. She could still feel it, even now. But then she had went to bed. And when she slept, instead of dreaming, she had had visions of the future. They came, one after the other, swamping her brain, all of them about Axel. She could remember them all, as though they were imprinted in her skull.

And the Axel in the future hadn't changed. What had happened between her and Axel yesterday hadn't changed his future at all. He still turned into this person that she didn't know, this hard, cold, emotionless man who seemed to play around with everyone. None of the visions had been too far in the future, and she hadn't tried to look farther. She was scared of what she might find.

Where was Axel today? Drana stared at the ground, then glanced down up at the sky. Why was she always waiting?

Suddenly she heard rushed footsteps behind her and she whirled around to see Axel suddenly loom out of the darkness, his face hidden by shadows.

"Axel, I-" Drana began, surprise trickling through her as he bore down upon her.

Axel ignored her stuttering and shoved his fingers through her hair, bending his head down to kiss her roughly. His free hand snaked around her waist and pulled her against him, tucking her small frame hard against his. It seemed like everywhere he touched her fire spread, but somehow it was different than yesterday, Drana thought. There seemed to be anger in him today, and he pushed against her as though he would never have the chance to do this again. He pulled back, pausing only an instant before his lips travelled down the side of her face to her neck. She tipped her head back to allow him better access, clutching at his cloak to pull him nearer. Axel's mouth moved over her skin, biting lightly.

"A...Axel...?" she breathed, confusion overriding the sensations roaring through her.

He paused, tucking his head down against her shoulder.

"Why did you save me that first day?" he asked huskily.

Drana froze. "It...it was instinct."

"Why have you been seeing me all this time? Why didn't you just forget about me after you'd sewed up my cloak?"

"I told you, I had more questions. And I wanted to see you," she replied. Her heart was racing, but now it was for a different reason than it had been just a minute ago.

Abruptly, he pushed away from her. "Can you see the future?" he said bluntly, her green eyes glowing in the darkness.

Shock ripped through her. The only people who knew that were her parents. "Yes," she said quietly. "How did you-"

"Did you see a vision of me in the future when you first met me?"

"Well, yes, but that was after I'd saved you-"

"Was it a bad future?"

Drana gaped at him, but his face was closed. "Yes," she admitted.

His eyes burned into her, but somehow the fire in them seemed cold. "So, all along, you weren't staying with me because you wanted to, but because you were just trying to be a martyr and make me be a better person?"

Drana's head spun. This didn't seem real. She could still feel the touch of his lips on hers, but now he was so far away from her that she didn't know what she was supposed to do to bridge the gap.

"No!" she exclaimed. "Well, yes, initially, but not anymore!"

Axel turned around and began to walk away, his shoulders hunched.

"Axel!" Drana cried.

"Thank you," he called back over his shoulder, his voice devoid of all emotion. "That was all I needed to know. I won't bother you ever again."

She opened her mouth, but all the words in her head, however true they were, sounded false, and in the end she couldn't say anything, could only watch him fade into the darkness, his footsteps growing fainter and fainter until they had completely disappeared.

"So that's how you destroy a Nobody."

Drana spun about to see another form melt out of the shadows, another Organization member, this one with blue hair cascading down his shoulders and a jagged x-shaped scar stretching across his face. He stepped closer to her, watching her curiously and with a faint sort of amusement. Behind him, a dark portal stood open, waiting for him to return to it.

"Make him believe he can actually feel something, then rip it all away from him by having it confirmed that it was a lie." The man shook his head in admiration. "Beautiful. I lucked out with my guess. All I knew was that you could see the future. I had no idea if you had had a vision of Axel's or not. But looks like my guess was right." He smiled at her triumphantly. "Thank you, girl. He was getting out of hand for a while because of you, but now that he's broken, he'll be a ruthless killer. Well done. You're the one who caused his future to be what it is."

Anger coiled up in her gut, building as the man talked, spreading through her limbs until she was shaking with it. Belatedly, the man seemed to sense her fury and he glanced down at her in alarm, but it was too late. Drana surged forward and punched the man in the head with all her strength, pouring everything she had just felt in the last five minutes into that one movement. The man staggered, then dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Five minutes later, Drana was zipping up an Organization cloak over her clothes. Sparing one last glance for the now shirtless unconscious man at her feet, she turned and plunged into the portal, letting the darkness wrap around her and swallow her up.

She was not going to let it end like this.


	7. Chapter 7

Blackness. It was all she could see as she ran blindly, darkness swirling around her in wispy tendrils. Drana clutched the heavy black cloak closer around her body, tripping over the hem, but not daring to pull it up. It seemed as though it was the only thing that was stopping the darkness from creeping into her and smothering her to death.

Where was she going? She knew that she wanted to go to the Castle that Axel lived at, so she could explain things to him, but in all honesty, she had no idea how this portal thing worked. All she knew was that without the cloak, any Somebody who stepped into the dark portal would become a Heartless in a matter of minutes, and any Nobody would simply disappear.

Through the blackness, she could see faint glimpses of colour beside her as she ran, faint images of other worlds. She ignored them all, knowing that the Castle was not anywhere bright and colourful: Axel had described it to her once, so she knew what she was looking for. Except it wasn't here. She was alone, alone in the churning mess of darkness.

Drana's feet slowed, and she eventually stopped, gazing around her in uncertainty. She couldn't give up now, not after she'd come this far! She closed her eyes, putting her fingers to her temple.

"I want to go to The Castle That Never Was," she said loudly, paying no attention to the stuttering of her heart. "I want to go to The Castle That Never Was!"

There was a sound like a vacuum cleaner sucking up tissue paper, and Drana opened her eyes only to have to squint them against the light that radiated out from the space in front of her. Shielding her eyes and steeling herself for whatever was going to happen next, she stepped forward, out of the portal and into the Castle.

The first thing she registered was whiteness. Her eyes burned after the swift transition from dark to light, but after a moment they adjusted, and she could make out that she was in a hallway, stretching far off into the distance and winding up in a spiral to who knows where. The sheer size of the place astonished her, and she stood, gaping for a moment.

"Impressive, isn't it?"

Drana turned quickly to see a man in a black cloak leaning casually against the wall beside her. He had short, cropped blond hair and a goatee. Like most of the Organization members she had met so far, his eyes were blank, but he was smiling.

"I am getting really sick of you guys sneaking up on me!" Drana exclaimed, pointing at him. "This is the third time! First that pink-haired dude, then the blue-haired one, and now you!" Thinking quickly, she added, "I might not join your Organization after all!"

He raised an eyebrow. "You're the new recruit?" he asked. "Saix mentioned that a new recruit, a woman this time, had been scouted, but she was not supposed to join our ranks for weeks yet. And you look like a girl, not a woman." His shrewd eyes dug into her. "And that cloak seems to be a little big on you."

Drana stepped forward and kneed him hard in the crotch before he could say another word. His eyes bulged, and a small, pathetic squeak came out of his mouth before he fell to the ground, his hands cupped protectively over himself.

By the time he hit the floor, Drana was already gone, running down the hallway as fast as she could while being quiet. It would take him more than a few minutes to recover from that blow, but when he did, he would raise the alarm. She had to find Axel before that!

From up ahead she heard voices coming out of a room, and she slowed down, pressing her back to the wall, her heart hammering away. Inch by inch, she slid down the wall until she could peer around the partially opened door, and her heart stopped completely.

Axel was sitting on a bed, wearing nothing but a pair of black pants, his spine showing through his pale skin as he hunched over, staring at the floor. Two men in black cloaks stood over him, their backs to Drana, one with pink-hair, the other with strange, ugly, black dreadlocks in a weird twist thing at the back of his head. In fact, Drana wasn't even certain that the black haired one was a man. It could have been a very broad-shouldered, hideous woman.

"So, how does it feel to realize that you don't have a heart?" the dreadlocked one said in a deep voice. Yup, definitely a man. Or a woman on testosterone pills?

"Oh, that's right. You can't feel anything. Just like the rest of us," Pink Hair sneered. The two of them laughed, and Axel's shoulders grew tense, his muscles bunching.

Axel raised his head, and Drana shivered at the lack of expression in his eyes. "I suggest you get out and stop irritating me," he said in a low, dangerous voice. "Or I'll burn your balls off." He smirked at Pink Hair. "Of course, you don't have any to begin with, Marluxia."

Pink Hair's hand flashed out and snaked around Axel's neck. "How dare you," he hissed. "I should just wipe you off the face of the planet. You're a traitor to the whole Organization, throwing us away for some girl, and then crawling back when it turns out she's some sort of lying bitch."

Axel was on his feet in a second, staring defiantly at the pink-haired man. "Fine, then," he said with a taunting smile. "Do it. I don't want to be here anyway."

Panic raced up through Drana, and she flung open the door without thinking, dashing forward and knocking Marluxia's hand away from Axel's throat. She spread her arms wide in front of Axel, pressing her back against his chest to stand between him and the two men.

"Back off, asshole!" she yelled.

There was a short, shocked silence.

"Drana...?"

She didn't turn around, even hearing Axel speak her name in that voice, all at once angry, and confused and hopeful. She didn't want to turn her back on these two, especially now that she'd confirmed that Dreadlocks was indeed a man. A very ugly one, but a man all the same.

Pink Hair, the one named Marluxia, stared at her. "How can your little girlfriend be here?" he asked in surprise. "And whose cloak is that?"

"It belongs to some blue-haired guy who is now lying unconscious and stranded in Twilight Town," Drana snarled.

Axel sucked in a quick breath and the two men recoiled unconsciously, their eyes widening as they gaped at her.

"Saix?" Dreadlocks gasped. "You knocked out Saix?"

Drana smirked. Apparently Saix was someone important in this Organization. Her overpowering him must come as a huge shock to them.

"Yeah," she said defiantly, jutting her chin up. "I punched him in the face."

"You punched him in the face?"

Drana couldn't resist a glance back at Axel's voice this time, and she was startled by how close his face was to hers. He was looking at her with some mixture of awe and disbelief, and all at once she was aware of the heat and feel of his body pressing against her. She flushed and turned back to the other two.

Marluxia was the first to recover, and a deadly expression replaced the dumbstruck one. "Looks like you're a bigger nuisance then I'd thought," he growled.

Several things suddenly happened at once. Marluxia threw his hand out and summoned a dark portal in the side of the room. Simultaneously, Dreadlocks surged forward and grabbed Drana's cloak in his meaty hands, tearing it off of her as though it were tissue paper, the seams splitting open. Then Marluxia seized her wrist and pulled her away from Axel and over to him.

"Drana!" Axel moved almost as fast, reaching for her, but Dreadlocks effortlessly blocked him with an arm.

"This girl deceived you, remember?" Marluxia said smoothly. "You don't really care about what happens to her. After all, you can't care at all."

Axel hesitated, his green eyes flicking from Marluxia's face to Drana's, his expression unreadable.

"Time to eliminate the nuisance," Pink Hair muttered, and then he turned and threw Drana towards the dark corridor.

"NO!" Axel yelled.

As if in slow motion, Drana saw a ball of fire explode in Dreadlocks' face, Axel ducking around them both to lunge for the portal, trying to pull her back. She tried to scream at him to get back, that he would disappear if he entered the dark corridor without his cloak, but her voice didn't seem to be working. His fingers just brushed against her wrist, and then they both toppled backwards into the darkness.

She felt his body collide with hers, and then he was gone, and she was tumbling alone into the black, finally coming to a halt on her back. A wave of despair broke over Drana, and tears welled up in her eyes as she stared sightlessly. Any minute now, the darkness would taint her so much that she would become a Heartless, and Axel was already gone...

Gone.

Axel.

Was.

Gone.

She curled into a ball, sobs shaking her body, her fingernails digging into her skull. She couldn't accept it, couldn't believe it. Although she had only known him for about a week, somehow he had become more then she'd ever thought anyone could. And she'd never told him. She'd never told him that she'd felt more than lust when he kissed her the first time. She'd felt-

"Drana?"

She stopped breathing.

"Drana, are you okay?"

Slowly, she opened her eyes, and raised her head, not daring to hope.

Axel was leaning over her, his green eyes wide with panic, his red hair sticking up even more spastically then normal. She met his gaze and for a second everything just seemed to stop.

"Why...how..." Drana whispered. "How are you still alive? I thought Nobodies disappeared if they went into the dark corridor without their cloaks, because they don't have hearts..."

She trailed off, her eyes shifting from his face and down over his collarbone to his bare chest. She lifted her hand tentatively, and touched it against the place where his heart would be if he'd had one. A second later, she got her answer.

"Axel," she said dazedly. "You have a heartbeat."


	8. Chapter 8

"That's impossible," Axel said, his voice hushed. "I'm a Nobody. I can't have a heart."

"But you do," Drana said wonderingly, her hand still splayed across his chest. "I can feel it. And it's proven by the fact that you're still here, in the dark corridor, alive even though you don't have your cloak on. If you didn't have a heart, you'd have vanished the instant you stepped inside."

"I...have a heart?" Axel whispered, as though if he said it too loud, it would break.

She opened her mouth to answer, but suddenly the darkness around them shivered, moving with a strange undulation that pushed up against her back. She barely had time to grab onto Axel's shoulder before the ground beneath her abruptly disintegrated, and they fell down into a sea of black purple. Axel's arms swept up around her, and they clung to each other, blinded by the shadows moving around them and over them. Drana felt like they were seeping into her skin. Was she becoming a Heartless? Had they been in the dark corridor long enough for that to happen?

Beneath her she felt the glow of whiteness, growing brighter and brighter as they hurtled towards it. A second later, they ripped through the tendrils of darkness and slammed into the ground, skidding across the floor of the Castle that Never Was, finally coming to a stop sprawled next to each other. Almost instantly, they both scrambled to a sitting position, Axel crouching protectively in front of her as they stared up at a blue-haired man in a black cloak.

"You have a heart?" Saix scoffed, fingering the huge bruise around his left eye. "Not for long, you don't."

"Nice shiner," Axel commented, smirking. Saix's good eye twitched.

"Xaldin came to get me in Twilight Town. Of course, the buffoon forgot to bring me an extra cloak, so I borrowed his," Saix said, ignoring Axel. "This ridiculousness ends here." He nodded to someone over Drana's shoulder, and she turned to see what seemed to be hundreds of tall, wobbly white marionettes. "Take the girl."

Instantly, Axel positioned himself between Drana and the new creatures, keeping his arm out between her and Saix. Saix smiled thinly.

"How cute, Axel," he murmured. "Not long ago, you hated her, and now you've decided to protect her? But never fear, you wouldn't get too far anyway. It's useless. There are too many Dusks, even for you." He gave a barely perceptible nod, and the white things surged forward in a wave, zooming over the ground like creepy mechanical dolphins.

There was a flash of red light and Axel's chakrams appeared in his hands. He stood up, his eyes focused on the rapidly approaching Dusks, but then he suddenly whipped around and threw one of the disks at Saix, aiming straight for his head. At first Drana thought he'd got him, but then there was a burst of blue light and the chakram bounced harmlessly off of a huge claymore that Saix had summoned.

"So it's come to this," Saix hissed. "I never thought we'd be fighting, old friend."

He moved like a strike of lightning, swinging the claymore over his head and slashing towards Axel, who only just blocked it with his chakrams. He ducked and rolled to the side, flame bursting from his outstretched hand and surrounding the place where Saix would have been if he had not teleported away a second earlier, appearing above Axel to stab down at him. Fire exploded around Axel's body, blowing Saix away. He flew through the air and collided with the first wave of Dusks, knocking several of them down, the rest of them halting their advance to stare at the blue-haired man in indecision.

Saix slowly got to his feet, gripping his claymore in front of him. Axel and Drana stood together, facing him and the Dusks. Saix stared at them, and it was as though something in him had snapped. Blue energy seemed to crackle around him, and waves of power rolled off him. It was as if he had gone...berserk.

Slowly, he raised his claymore, and pointed it at them. A guttural noise ripped from his throat, and he and the Dusks flew forwards, straight for Drana and Axel.

Drana clenched her fists, ready to defend herself using the only weapons she had, paltry as they may be, but suddenly a ring of fire burst up around her, surrounding her like a cage.

"NO!" Drana cried, watching in horror through the gaps in the flickering flames as Axel plunged into the fight alone. "I want to fight too! Axel! Let me OUT!"

Axel spun and slashed, outnumbered by a thousand to one, balls of fire swirling all around him. A few Dusks hurled themselves at Drana's cage, but when the fire incinerated them, the rest ignored her, all turning to flood towards Axel. Helpless, Drana stood there, knowing that the flames protecting her were using up Axel's strength, knowing that she should be out there, helping him, knowing that he couldn't win.

Saix's claymore slammed into Axel again and again, the red-haired man struggling harder to black it each time. He staggered backwards, and the Dusks, sensing weakness, moved forward like a wave, pouncing upon him. A black and white image flashed in front of Drana's eyes, and she knew what was going to happen an instant before it did.

"AXEL!" she screamed.

The flames around her died, just in time for her to see a Dusk stab it's arm into Axel's chest.

The world seemed to slow. Axel's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared down at the arm protruding from him. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but a bubble of blood formed and burst, red liquid trickling down his face and joining the growing pool around the wound. The Dusk pulled it's arm back, and it slid out of Axel with a sickeningly wet sound, his body jerking before he fell to his knees.

Drana ran towards him, her vision hazy as she stumbled to the ground beside him. He looked down at her, then down at his chest, his mouth twitching as though he was trying to smile.

"So he really does have a heart now," Saix said quietly. Drana couldn't even look at him. She couldn't seem to do anything. "He wouldn't be bleeding if he didn't have a heart."

Drana touched her hand to Axel's cheek slowly, her other hand hovering over the gaping hole in his chest as though she could somehow stop him from bleeding. But she could barely see anything: tears were streaming down her face, and her throat seemed to be blocked. The only noises she could make were strange, strangled ones that didn't make any sense.

She felt a warm touch on her cheek, and she blinked her eyes in surprise to see that Axel had his hand to her face as well, his thumb stroking over her skin.

"I'm...o...kay," he said, his voice thick. "It's...just a...flesh...wound."

"Idiot, that's not just a flesh wound," Drana choked out.

"Don't...worry," Axel replied, his voice a little stronger than before. "I...heal fast."

She glanced down, and felt a jolt of shock go through her as she realized that his wound had already stopped bleeding, and the edges of his skin seemed to be knitting themselves together, the hole in his flesh growing smaller.

"How-?" she whispered.

Abruptly, two arms wrapped around her wrists and she was dragged backwards away from Axel, the Dusks holding her in a bone-crushing grip. Axel tried to get up, reaching for her, but he slumped to the ground again, clutching his chest. Saix stepped between them, glaring down at Drana.

"He can't die because he's not a Somebody or a Nobody anymore," Saix snarled. "Because you gave him a heart, he's now half a Nobody, and half a Somebody. He's neither of them anymore. He's an Anti-Body." He turned to look at Axel, who was struggling to get up. "He can't fade, because he's not a Nobody, and he can't die, because he's not a Somebody. But you know who can die?" His eyes zeroed in on Drana's, and he smiled coldly. "You."

"You bastar-" Axel began, pushing himself up with a surge of strength. Before he could do anything, the other two Dusks seized his arms, holding him firm.

"Vexen!" Saix called. "Bring the girl!"

Drana tensed, expecting to be dragged somewhere again, but to her surprise, the Dusks parted, and a man with long light brown hair stepped arrogantly forward. Drana had barely a second to register that this man was the one that Axel had killed in her first vision of him in the future, before she noticed the girl following him.

The girl was pale, with wide blue eyes set starkly in her face, blond hair falling softly over her right shoulder. She was wearing a simple white dress, and she had the empty look of a Nobody. Judging by the way she moved, like a robot, she was probably a new Nobody at that.

The man, Vexen, she assumed, surveyed the scene with a superior sort of smile.

"Oh, there is no need to kill the girl," Vexen said. "Surely she could be of some use in the future. After all, she did prove the validity of my theory of an Anti-Body. I understand that she has been a huge detriment to our Organization, however I believe I have a much more suitable punishment, one that helps us accomplish our other objective: to return Axel to his original state as a Nobody." He waved his hand, and most of the Dusks scampered away, leaving only the four that were holding her and Axel. Now that they were gone, Drana could see that the room they were in was huge, with high, arched ceilings. At the other end of the room was a strange structure of what looked like a white, translucent flower, or an egg shell that had been split open in smooth petal shapes. Drana glanced at Axel, and their eyes met, both of them trying to figure out what was going on.

Vexen looked from Axel to Drana, noting the connection of their gazes, and he smiled again. "I believe," he said slowly. "That if we erase Axel's memories of the girl, we will also erase his heart. And then he will be one of us again."

Drana's eyes widened and she pitched her body forward, fighting against the arms that held her, arms that were holding her back as Axel was dragged away from her, towards the shell thing.

"Axel!" she cried, hating the feeling of being helpless.

Axel struggled against the two Dusks that held him, trying to stand up. He wrenched free one wrist, but two more Dusks appeared out of nowhere, grabbing onto his arms and pulling him harder. Axel growled, his feet sliding against the ground ineffectively.

"Saix!" he yelled, his furious eyes finding his once friend. "Just kill me instead! I'll never work with the Organization again, so you might as well kill me!"

Saix shook his head coldly. "Oh, you're much more use to us as a Nobody. Without those petty emotions for that girl, for _Drana,_"-he sneered her name like it was something disgusting-"Then you will be as you were supposed to be. And, so Vexen tells me, losing your heart twice will turn you even more ruthless than before. It will turn you into the assassin that she foresaw in the future."

Axel's gaze shifted to Drana, who was straining forward against the restraints of the Dusks, her eyes panicked. He felt pain shoot through his chest, and he knew it wasn't leftover from the wound, which had already healed. How could he forget her? He didn't want to be what he had been before. He didn't want to _be_ at all...not without her.

They both fought, yelling at their captors, struggling towards each other futilely. Axel couldn't count the amount of times he cried out her name, but they forced him backwards into the shell thing. The blond girl stepped forward, raising her hands towards the shell.

"He will one day be connected to Sora," she murmured. "I can erase his memories, because he will one day be connected to Sora."

She raised her arms and the first layer of clear walls raised up around Axel, locking him in. He climbed to his feet and threw himself against the glass, but it didn't budge. The other petals were starting to rise too, slowly closing around him. He pounded on the glass desperately, his eyes focused on Drana's face. This couldn't happen. He hadn't told her yet. He'd only known her for about a week, but she'd changed him, and had become more than he'd ever thought someone could ever be to him. With her, he'd finally felt something he thought he'd never get the chance to feel. Something he hadn't been able to identify until now, until it was too late.

Drana screamed in rage and despair, seeing him so close, yet so far away. This couldn't happen. She hadn't told him yet. She hadn't even properly apologized for what had happened before, and now she was never going to see him again? He was slamming his fist into the shell thing, his eyes directly on her. He was trying to say something to her, the same thing over and over, but she couldn't hear him, and she couldn't make out what it was. The last of the shell pieces were halfway up now, and his face was starting to grow less clear through two layers of the shell. Fury, raw, untapped fury rose up within her and she suddenly felt heat rush down her arms. The Dusks' grip suddenly loosened, as though she had sapped their strength, and she ripped herself free, running towards the shell.

Both Saix and Vexen snarled and leaped for her, but she plunged forward, seeing nothing but Axel. He pressed his hand against the glass, fingers splayed, and she stretched her arm forward, her hand landing on the side of the shell where his was, only an inch of glass separating their hands. Their eyes met, and for a second time stopped.

Then Saix tore her away from Axel, and the walls of the shell closed around him.

Axel felt the click of the shell closing vibrate through the whole structure. He stumbled backwards, his fingers peeling away from the spot where, just on the other side, Drana's had been a moment before. A strange lethargy came over him, and he fought against it.

"No," he said hoarsely, falling to his knees. He didn't want to forget Drana. He didn't want to forget her.

A picture of her face floated up in his mind, her smiling, the sun lighting the side of her face.

"I love you," he whispered.

And then his eyes closed, and he forgot.

* * *

Xemnas stared out the window of the Castle That Never Was, the glow of Kingdom Hearts reflected in his empty eyes. Many things had gone wrong, he reflected pensively. The keyblade wielder had killed almost every single member of the Organization. It wouldn't be long before he would be coming to challenge Xemnas himself. But he was confident. He knew that he could not be defeated by someone with the power of the keyblade wielder.

He heard the sound of a dark corridor opening and closing behind him and he turned to see a slight, female figure in a black cloak standing there.

"Ah, Xandra," he said, with a tiny smile. "I'm glad you accepted my offer to join the Organization. I knew that you'd prove useful one day, what with your gift to see the future, so I'm glad we left you alive that day long ago. And now that you are a Nobody, you have made an intelligent choice to ally yourself with us."

The figure in the cloak swept off her hood, revealing a girl's face with sharp, dark eyes and short, spiky dark brown hair, slightly different than how she had looked as a Somebody.

"Xemnas," she said, her voice devoid of emotion. "Do you know why I lost my heart to darkness and became a Nobody? It was because everyday, since you threw me back into Twilight Town, I used my gift to see the present, to watch over Axel. I saw him get friends. I saw him lose them. I saw him try to get them back. I saw him fail. And then, I saw him die." Her dead eyes stared straight into Xemnas's. "I watched him fade, and when he did, I lost my heart."

She shook her head. "I'm not using my gift to help you. Because I can see the future, I know this. You will fail. The keyblade wielder will destroy you. Everything you have worked for will be for nothing." She stepped closer to him. "I may be a Nobody, but my name is Drana, not Xandra. And I may not be able to feel anymore, but I loved Axel. Any I hope you rot in hell after you are killed."

There was a faint ripping noise, and Drana's body jerked as Xemnas pulled his ethereal blade out of her stomach as quickly as he had stabbed it into her. She wobbled, then collapsed on the floor in a heap, vaguely aware of Xemnas stepping over her body and walking away.

So this is what fading feels like, she thought faintly. Maybe now, I'll see Axel again.

A picture of his face floated up in her mind, him smiling, his turquoise green eyes fixed on her.

"I love you," she whispered.

And then her eyes closed, and she faded.

* * *

**Well guys, I've finally finished the series! Sorry it ended on a depressing note...if enough people want me to, I MAY write a very short epilogue on Axel and Drana finding each other again in the afterlife.**

**Writing this had been supremely awesome! Thank you guys for all the hits (over 300!) and the reviews! I read every review and they all inspire me to do better and write more! I came under extreme fire from my family members, all of whom hold fanfiction in contempt and made fun of me, so it's nice to be supported by you guys.**

**I'm sorry this chapter came so late...it almost killed me to write it. I'll be sad to say goodbye to Drana and Axel, but my next fanfiction will probably involve the new concept of "Anti-Bodies", Nobodies who have gotten a heart through loving a Somebody and being loved in return. So, goodbye for now, and thanks for reading!  
**


	9. Epilogue

I'm dead.

Drana slowly opened her eyes, gazing upwards into blackness. For a moment she thought she was inside a dark corridor, but this blackness was different. She couldn't feel it eating away at her soul the way she had before.

I'm dead, she remembered. She could still see Xemnas's face before hers and feel him stab her in the chest. She had died as a Nobody...so why was she here? Where was here?

She got to her feet cautiously, turning on the spot to peer into the darkness around her. She was alone, stranded.

Something seemed to swell up in her throat, and all of a sudden pain wracked through her body. Her limbs spasmed and she cried out, barely managing to stay on her feet. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her head throbbing under incredible pressure. Feelings, things she hadn't been able to feel ever since she had become a Nobody, raced through her, hope, love, fury, grief all in a long strip. Eventually the sensation faded, and she found herself back in the darkness, panting.

I can feel again, she realized, shock coursing through her. I can finally feel again!

Almost as soon as she thought that, despair swamped over her. What was the point? She had died, and she was alone here in this strange place. Nobodies just disappeared when they died. This was probably what happened to all of them when they faded: they got dumped into the darkness, all alone, and were given back their feelings only so they could suffer.

So I won't be able to see him again, she thought, sinking slowly to her knees. I'm all alone, and I'll never ever see him again.

Her body bent forward, curling down vertebrae by vertebrae, as if she was an old person who could barely move, until her forehead touched the ground. Pain, different from before, shot through her, but abruptly, she wrenched herself up and to her feet, swaying slightly. She couldn't just give in!

Drana squinted into the blackness. She thought she could see something, something faint in the distance.

Slowly, materializing out of the shadows, was a person, with their back to her. At first all she could see was a blur of red, but then shoulders and a long black cloak came into view. She froze in shock, staring as the figure turned slowly.

"Axel?" she said, her voice barely audible.

His eyes stared into hers, connecting them across the expanse of blackness, a smile spreading across his face. "I knew I'd find you," he said, and then they were both moving, racing towards each other like they would break if they went a second more without contact.

She wasn't certain quite how it happened, but suddenly she was in his arms, spinning through the air. She felt her feet leave the ground, and she caught one glimpse of star-bright green eyes before his mouth was on hers. He threaded his fingers into her hair and held her to him hard, kissing her with a sort of desperation. He tasted of joy, and Drana could feel his presence searing through her body.

"Axel, Axel, Axel!" she whispered when they broke apart, her eyes moving over his face. "It's really you!"

He grinned, and kissed her again.

"I remember," he said, his hands moving to cup her face. "I got all my memories back!" He stared at her as though he couldn't believe his eyes. "Drana..."

"I love you," she said, smiling wider than she ever thought she could. "I thought I'd never get the chance to tell you that."

His eyes widened, but then he smirked, dipping his head so his words brushed across her face.

"Why do you always steal the words out of my mouth?" he asked. "I was supposed to say it first. I tried to tell you back then, but you couldn't hear me through the shell thing." A real smile spread across his face. "I love you."

They spun around again, arms pulling each other as close as possible. This is not a dream, Drana thought giddily. This is us. I'm not imagining this. I can feel him. Axel's shoulders, Axel's hands, Axel's body. They moved together, happiness flowing like an electrical current connecting the two, and when they pulled away, both of them could barely breath.

"What now?" Drana asked, trying to memorize the feeling of Axel's warmth burning into her.

"What now?" Axel laughed, pressing his forehead against hers. "I'm not leaving you again, that's what. I've got back my memories, my feelings, and the heart you gave me. It's going to be you and me now, forever." He grinned, pulling back slightly. "Well, not just you and me."

Drana opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but suddenly she noticed other shapes coming out of the blackness. Faces she recognized from her visions appeared: a boy with a mullet and a sitar, a girl with a sour expression and short blond hair, a man with cropped hair, a goatee, and playing cards. Drana turned around, amazement filling her as more people appeared in a circle around them. She opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly the blackness above shimmered and began to melt away.

Streets, then houses were revealed, stretching off into the distance. Buildings of different styles and shapes and sizes stuck out here and there, as though the place had been built using parts of everyone's hometowns. She almost thought she could see the clock tower from her Twilight Town in the distance, looming over it all.

"Turns out that Nobodies do get another life," Axel said.

She turned to him, not sure what to say. Her heart felt so full that if she opened her mouth it would all come tumbling out.

"We do?" she managed. Without her permission, her hand reached forward, as though searching for some sort of assurance that this was real.

Axel took her hand, and awareness shivered through her.

"Yeah," he answered, pulling her forward. "And there's some people I want you to meet."

He took her shoulder and turned her to face two people who were stepping forward, a boy with spiky golden hair, and a girl with short black hair.

"This is Roxas, and Xion." Axel said.

The couple smiled, their twin blue eyes shining into Drana's.

"Guys, this is Drana."

* * *

Later, when the moon had risen and everyone else in the Nobody land had gone to sleep, Drana would climb out of bed. She would pull the sheets off of Axel, pausing to run a finger down the side of his sleeping face, and then she'd wrap them around her body and walk across the room to the glass doors at the far side. She'd stand on the balcony and think of her parents, and her old life, and what might have happened to her had she never met the red-haired man. But then she'd look back at him through the glass, and she'd remember the day she met him. And then she would go back inside, and wake him up, and they'd slowly merge together again into one person, soft sounds melting away in the night.

But right now, she was going to meet everyone. She was going to talk and chatter and look around her, at Demyx, and Namine, and Zexion, and Roxas, and Xion, and _Axel,_and she was going to think to herself: We're not Nobodies anymore. This is not a dream. This is us.

* * *

**I bet you guys thought that I'd forgotten that I said I'd do an epilogue! Well, here it is. I think it finally sort of wraps things up, and I kind of like it. Thank you guys so much for all the support for this story! All the reviews and views on it (over 600 views now!) are awesome, and I'm glad people like it so much! From here on end, I'll probably be doing one shots here and there, because I'm not allowed on the computer except for weekends, so I won't have much time. I hope you guys check out my future stories, and thank you again!**


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